True Horrors of the AkaneKen
by Moryath
Summary: Tofu Ono returns, with a cure for Kasumi Syndrome. Shampoo gets what's coming to her. Slightly waffy ending. 'Nuff said.


My first Ranma fanfic (well... except for an extreme past-timeline crossover thing I won't get into as it has little to no relevance anyways). After the failed wedding attempt, Ranma meets up with Dr. Tofu, who thinks he has managed to cure himself of his reaction to Kasumi and so has come back to reopen his medical practice, and the two discover that Akane's ability to use her Ki has awakened...  
  
***************************************************  
True Horrors of the AkaneKen  
***************************************************  
  
Ranma and Tofu were walking toward the Tendo Dojo, catching up on news. Tofu Ono had traveled all the way to China, eventually finding a Ki technique for altering Ki flow to affect moods.  
  
As they walked, they noticed something peculiar. On all the building walls and in some parts of the road were perfectly circular holes. Ranma spoke up first.  
  
"You know, if I didn't know better I'd say this was damage from one of me and Ryoga's fights, except he hasn't been by in a month..."  
  
"I know what you mean, Ranma. Then again, this damage isn't quite like your fights. It's a little too random, and seems to be more powerful than Ryoga's bakusai tenketsu attack. I'd almost say it looks similar to Akane's damage."  
  
"Ya know, doc, if I'd said that, I'd be in low orbit about now..."  
  
The two continued in silence, analysing the damage. Here, someone had been blasted into the ground. There, a thrown attack had missed, and the attacker had taken a brutal counterattack. That particularly deep hole over there, with a purple bit of fur in it, had been enough to crack a water pipe and was slowly filling in.  
  
"Wait a moment, doc. That's Shampoo! Can you pull her outta there? I'd rather stay a guy right now."  
  
"Sure thing, Ranma," replied Tofu, carefully extracting Shampoo from the water. "Ranma, you'd better go run to the dojo. It's closer than my clinic. We're going to need a pot of hot water, a LOT of bandages, something to make a splint with, and I want you to send your father to retrieve the stretcher from my clinic so that we can carry her safely."  
  
"What is it, doc? Shampoo's never hurt that bad. Chinese Amazons just don't get that way what with bakusai tenketsu training and all."  
  
"Whatever hit Shampoo was too powerful. She's bleeding internally, and it looks like some of her bones have shattered. There's an aura of red Ki remaining, too; whatever did this did it only a few minutes ago."  
  
Ranma ran off at top speed. Less than a minute later he was back with the items Tofu had requested. As Tofu poured the water on Shampoo and began examining her, the true extent of her injuries was revealed. The damage started at Shampoo's solar plexus, and moved outwards. It was like the bakusai tenketsu, except that the damage had been done with Ki. Anger Ki. There wasn't a bone in Shampoo's body that didn't have at least a hairline fracture, from the look of the damage.  
  
As Tofu began setting and splinting bones, he turned to Ranma and said, "Go find a phone and get an ambulance, then call Cologne and have her meet me here. This is going to be bad, and she needs to be at a hospital, not to mention immobilized."  
  
Ranma ran off, missing out on viewing Tofu's "cure" when Kasumi arrived to help care for Shampoo.  
  
*************************************************  
  
Ranma and Tofu appeared back at the dojo late that night, having stayed to watch over Shampoo with Cologne. When the hospital's visiting hours ended, Tofu and Ranma had left while Cologne, being family, remained in the waiting room for word that her great-granddaughter was improving.  
  
As the two walked in the door, Ranma let out a cheery, "I'm home!" A second later, he dodged a large mallet, only to find out that for once he wasn't the target. Tofu Ono, meanwhile, lay on the ground quietly with his hands in the oh-so-familiar pain-warding gesture.  
  
Kasumi plucked the semi-conscious doctor from the floor, and held him at arm's length. "That was for not warning me," she declared, "and this is for finally having the courage to do it." She then gave the good doctor a kiss that not only woke him up but completely made him forget he'd had a headache just seconds earlier.  
  
Ranma sweatdropped, wondering when exactly Kasumi had found time to learn that trick and who'd taught her the secrets of hammerspace, then followed the pair into the house.  
  
While the family (plus Tofu, minus Akane) ate dinner, Ranma learned the truth while he surveyed the newest damage to the dojo. Random sections of the walls, along with items in the home like the old dinner table, had simply exploded.  
  
As it turned out, Tofu had been correct about the source of the damage. Earlier that day, Akane and Shampoo had fought, with near-fatal results. The trouble had begun when Shampoo attacked Akane using an exploding hot water trap: since Akane had been carrying P-chan at the time, her first sight had been Ryoga in her arms right where her pet had been.   
  
According to Nabiki, Akane had gone over the edge. Her first punch had put Ryoga down, and for once the boy built like an armored tank hadn't gotten back up. Her best guess was that he'd gotten up a couple minutes later and wandered off like always. The next few minutes were a flurry of missed punches, missed kicks, and Ki explosions. Finally, Akane had borrowed a trick from Ranma's book. She picked her one shot, caught Shampoo in the solar plexus, and attempted to repeat the hit using the amaguriken technique. While Akane wasn't fast enough to actually use amaguriken in battle, she had managed to land 4 or 5 punches before driving Shampoo into the ground. Then, she had run off... and everything she touched continued to explode.  
  
*********************************************  
  
Ranma walked up the stairs, noting the lack of railing, and headed towards Akane's room. Where the door usually was he found a splintered circular hole. Ranma slipped inside, and nearly fell over at a sight he'd never seen before.  
  
Akane was curled up on her bed in the fetal position, her fists pressed into her stomach. By the look of her face, she'd been crying ever since she'd gotten home.  
  
"A-Akane... are you all right?"  
  
"Ranma, I'm... how could he... why did I... how did I...?"  
  
"I dunno, Akane... show me what happened?"  
  
Akane sat up, and showed her hands. They looked perfectly normal, but to Ranma's Ki-sensitive eyes there was an incredibly focused aura of red all around them. The energy seemed to be looking for any sort of release possible, which explained why everything she had touched had exploded.  
  
"I don't really think red is the right color for an uncute tomboy like you, Ak..."  
  
Ranma's face went white as Akane readied her mallet. Halfway through her swing, the shaft exploded, and the head of the mallet went flying out the door.  
  
Akane started bawling again.   
  
Ranma sat on the end of Akane's bed, trying to figure out how to help her. He thought of hitting her. "No good, she'd only hit me back, and I'd wind up like Shampoo." He thought of leaving. "But I can't do that to her. She needs help." He thought of calling her uncute, and just letting the mallet hit him. "No good, she just tried that, and the mallet exploded."  
He thought of Tofu's Kasumi Syndrome Cure. "Worth a shot. At the very least it'll be worth the punishment I get."  
  
Akane's tears started to die down as she realized there were arms around her, hugging her. Then she noticed that her lips were pressed against something warm. She opened her eyes, and saw who was kissing her.  
  
Akane reached back for a mallet, but her hand stopped when she realized what was happening. "Ranma's kissing me... he's kissing me. Ranma's... kissing me."   
  
Akane wrapped her arms around Ranma and fell back to the bed, suddenly feeling far to good for the anger in her fists to remain.  
  
************************************************  
  
An hour later, Akane whispered, "Why'd you do it, Ranma?"  
  
"I dunno... I was trying to think of something, and I remembered how Dr. Tofu cured himself earlier today. It seemed worth a try. And even if it didn't work, it was the only option worth the amount of potential pain."  
  
"So, what happens now?"  
  
"Well, for starters we have to name that move. Since you invented it, I was thinking it should be called Akaneken."  
  
"Really? My very own move?"  
  
"Uh huh. Second, that move needs to go into the same category as my pop's umisenken and yamasenken techniques. It's way too dangerous. If you'd hit anybody but Ryoga or Shampoo or me with it, they wouldn't have survived. As it is, Shampoo won't be outta the hospital for a few months. I think I owe ya some thanks for that, it'll be nice not to have to try to push her offa me."  
  
"If you think so... though I agree, she deserves it for breaking up our wedding."  
  
"You mean... you still wanna marry me?"  
  
"Of course I do, baka. And now that you've proved how you feel about me, we can get around to doing it right."  
  
"Good by me... but how do we stop our dads from messing it up?"  
  
"Well, THEY don't know the Akaneken is sealed yet..."  
  
********************************************************************************  
  
Author's Notes:  
Kasumi OC? Well, maybe a little... but at that point in the Ranma storyline it was the only thing I could think of that would faze Ranma.  
The attitude toward Shampoo... well, after she participated in the destruction of Nodoka's house and then attacked Ranma during the failed wedding attempt, Ranma ought to have gotten to that point with her.  
  
C&C welcomed.  
  



End file.
